Chapter 34: Duke

“Symphon!” the Duke said, more excited than angry. “I am favored this day!” He ignored his lost arm as he turned to consider the new Speaker combatant.

Symphon held his blade warily.

Around the two of them, Felthal soldiers routed the shadows. Clearly their orders likely included ‘fight the shadows and stay clear of the Duke’, since Symphon was the only one to address the man in burnt, tattered clothes.

The Duke’s smile was genuine and almost infectious, even amid the chaos. “Today I am granted a Royal I canst bend to my will. House Praetor shall ascend to its rightful place. And I shall kill you to regain my lost power.”

Symphon relaxed his athletic stance and let his sword’s tip drift down. “If you think I’ll…”

Symphon showed no indication of his next attack. One moment he seemed to be bantering on the battlefield and the next a sharp rock spike emerged from the ground and impaled the Duke’s leg.

Duke Praetor had clearly been taken by surprise.

“Rather rude,” the Duke said, “but creative…”

Symphon struck again. He had no interest in the Usurper Warlord’s words.

But the Duke was ready this time. With his leg impaled he couldn’t dodge, and the next sword strike came at his neck. Instead the Duke grabbed the blade with his remaining hand. Symphon stopped, the sword nearly torn from his grasp.

“A common sword? Thou hast pilfered from my trove of the Word, and ye deign to swing about common steel?” The sword screamed in protest then shattered in the Duke’s hand.

In a brutal but elegant arc, Symphon brought the shattered blade around to lodge it in the Duke’s gut.

The Duke spoke a word that echoed through the wounded forest. Symphon was knocked back. “I bid thee, have some decorum, young ones.”

Then there was a nauseating bend in reality that made Shiori stumble to her knees. The Duke became so real, so manifest in body and personality that reality warped around him.

Shiori gasped. This entire time, he hadn’t been harnessing the power of whatever Grimoire he had prepared before combat? He had been fighting with only a shadow of his power. It felt like more than one Grimoire, but Shiori couldn’t be sure.

He stepped forward, ignoring the stone spike that shattered near where it pierced his leg. He whispered a word and the red tendrils snaked back out, grabbing Symphon. Meanwhile, the Duke’s leg wound closed and his arm regrew.

Symphon gasped as red tendrils of pure, manifest pain bound his hands. Shiori felt that pain through the open connection and hurriedly cut it. How was Symphon able to tolerate that pain?

But Symphon set his jaw and stood his ground as the Duke approached.

“Behold,” the Duke said in a friendly tone, “shall we try discussion before combat?”

“You’re here to take and kill,” Symphon said, “there can be no truth in words.”

“It is no wonder thou are strong beyond thy years, Symphon of Felthal,” the Duke said, stopping meters away. “For thou art wise beyond thy years.”

“Your kind uses words and promises and laws as chains to bind the weak. But you’ll be the first to break those chains when it suits you. The only truth you know is power, not words,” Symphon nearly spat this at Duke Praetor.

Symphon bore the pain of the red lashes like it was an inconvenient summer rain.

“That,” the Duke said carefully, “is insightful. Truly, wise beyond thy years. Pray tell, what is power? Are the Skalds of Felthal right about power? Is true power the honor that bends fate?”

Motohara began rising again. Symphon looked between the two Praetors. “Why is your Scion fighting you?”

The Duke clapped his hands in irritation. “Are we not in a discussion? Focus. I rarely meet a true thinking being such as yourself, Symphon of Felthal. I relish the chance to talk! Most of man live lives languishing like animals. In filth.”

The Duke seemed distracted, but when Symphon tried to attack, the Duke responded with a hand wreathed in red light. Symphon waited.

“Symphon,” Shiori said, voice laced with fear, “Motohara is trying to help. He’s free of the Duke’s control. He’s your half brother.”

Symphon’s eyes widened. He looked at Motohara, now opposite the Duke. Red light danced around Motohara as he healed himself. Motohara summoned strength from his Grimoire and accelerated his healing.

“Ah, the leaf wast only a distraction? A clever ruse,” the Duke said as Motohara continued to heal.

The Duke sighed. “Behold! The Princess doth focus on family and petty squabbles, like most pointless humanity. I have seen eons pass, watching mankind live like cattle content to graze and work before they die. Like ants beneath a great tower they could never understand.”

Symphon considered the Duke. He needed to stall, giving Motohara more time to heal. As the Duke’s healing completed, the red tendrils faded and the subtle signs of pain on Symphon’s face relaxed.

Shiori reopened the connection. She felt his fear, turned into steel by his soldier experiences. He wanted Shiori free. Even his love for her was buried under his determination to win this fight. He’d work with Motohara, but didn’t trust him.

“So,” Symphon answered casually, “will you tell me what true power is?”

The Duke’s eyes glittered. “Love!” he said simply. “All human power cometh from love. Love plows fields to feed families and writes poems. It propels armies. Most men die loving that which becomes dust, Symphon of Felthal. Foolishness.”

“Is that what motivates you, Duke? Love?”

The Duke nodded solemnly. It was the only motion Shiori had seen from the man that wasn’t flamboyantly happy or driven by insane ecstasy.

“Love for all mankind,” the Duke said, “is love of a greater purpose. If mankind is to rise above animal survival, sacrifice and vision are needed. Love of all, love for all, means abandoning laws and common morality for something greater. I live for a higher purpose.”

The Duke gestured at Symphon. “Join me. Kryptopeda dies! It is cursed by the last Princess. Great men must act now! I will gather this Princess and reforge the Realms’ foundations. Abandon thy false loyalties for a higher purpose!”

All around them the Umbrae shadows had fallen to the soldiers, but as the Duke spoke, each Felthal soldier grew weary and collapsed under the weight of his words.

Shiori could feel the magic in his words and she resisted. She saw Motohara and Symphon do the same.

An unseen tension flowed between Motohara and Symphon. The two young men gathered their power.

“No?” the Duke said sadly. “More is the pity.”

Shiori intended to help in the ensuing battle, but she was knocked aside as the three Speakers clashed before she could help.

Lightning and stone flew. Fire and ice choked the air around Shiori, who could only and wrap her head in her hands.

Most Speaker fights don’t last long. A Speaker’s power can be immense, and the human body is frail.

The sounds stopped and Shiori looked up. Symphon was collapsed on the ground. The Duke was dragging Motohara toward the open portal to the Deep.

“STOP!” Shiori yelled, but there was no magic behind her words.

Why wasn’t her magic working?

The Duke smiled. “Princess, I shall attend to you shortly.”

Symphon stood. His left arm was clearly broken. He winced at the pain once, then accepted it and walked toward the Duke.

Shiori nearly cut the connection again. He had to be feeling the pain from his arm more strongly than she felt it through the connection, but it was so intense.

The Duke Spoke a word and fire leapt around Symphon in a circle.

“No!” Shiori yelled, and the fire was quenched.

Symphon looked concerned. “Princess, he has you under a spell. Your magic can’t touch him.”

The Duke frowned. “Indeed, such a wise young man. Dreadful that we could not work together.” With that, the Duke tossed Motohara into the portal.

Symphon summoned lightning to strike the Duke as he came in from another angle.

But the Duke had disappeared.

With a jolt, Shiori realized he was standing behind her, next to an Umbrae that had remained hidden during the fight.

The Duke smote the Umbrae in half with a word, using its death to summon a portal.

The Duke pulled Shiori into the portal. She only had time to cry out and see Symphon running to her, too late to reach them before the portal closed.